Herbie performs “Space Captain” with special guest, Susan Tedesci and Derek Trucks live on The Late Show with David Letterman on August 3rd, 2010
Interview: The Sydney Morning Herald
Herbie Hancock, living legend and one of the finest jazz pianists of all time, is trying to eat lunch. An affable Italian reporter who regaled a New York media conference a little earlier with several long-winded questions for Hancock, however, has pulled up a seat next to the musician and is chatting . . . and chatting.
As the young man complains about his two roommates back in Italy, Hancock stops trying to shovel down salad and gives his new best friend his undivided attention.
Similar scenes play out a couple of times over a few days leading up to Hancock’s 70th birthday bash at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Journalists, fans and colleagues wanting just a minute of his time get five, 10 or 20.
Over nearly 50 years, Hancock has endured all types bending his ear – core jazz devotees wanting to talk about his pivotal role in Miles Davis’s second great quintet or Hancock’s albums for the Blue Note label, which effectively reinvented be-bop in the 1960s.
Others caught on to Hancock in the ’70s during his early electronic music experiments and embrace of funk, and there’s a whole clump of people who know nothing more of the classically trained, child protege pianist other than his huge 1983 crossover hit, the electronic instrumental Rockit, one of the first recordings to feature the kind of scratching that would become a standard hip-hop tool.
Acid jazz, R’n’B, unencumbered pop, Hancock flirted with them all over subsequent decades and some of his experiments had a profound impact on the shape of the genres.
At the age of 70, with 12 Grammys to his credit – the last being the result of the unexpected beauty and innovation of his 2008 tribute to Joni Mitchell, River: The Joni Letters – he’s pretty much heard it all, from the ultimate compliment by his mentor, Davis: “Herbie was the step after Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk and I haven’t heard anybody yet who has come after him”, to the whining of haughty jazz purists, offended by Hancock’s frequent cross-genre explorations.
The latest contribution to his discography of 50-plus titles likely to send some critics into a tizz is the The Imagine Project, a cross-borders undertaking involving more than a dozen big international names from a funky range of cultures, performing generally uplifting cover versions touching on hope, dreams and unity.
“It’s the 21st century,” Hancock says, “we don’t have to just think nationally any more, we have to think globally.”
“Global collaboration” and the unifying impact of music with “a view to peace” are the themes bringing together artists including Anoushka Shankar, Pink, John Legend, Dave Matthews, the Chieftains, Los Lobos, India.Arie and Juanes.
The logistical challenges of putting together The Imagine Project (which will also generate a documentary) were enormous, with recordings in seven countries over 18 months. Some had to be completed by correspondence, as it were, Hancock says. For example, he’s yet to meet or even talk on the phone – “but I will” – with Englishman James Morrison, whose heartfelt rendition of Sam Cooke’s song A Change is Gonna Come is a standout track.
Everyone Hancock asked to contribute agreed, he says, although some among them – Sting and the Black Eyed Peas, for example – were thwarted by conflicting schedules. Elton John wanted to be part of it, but the backing for the song Hancock recorded for the pop star was “in the wrong key”.
There were also a few last-minute glitches as the album was being mixed, with some of the musicians (Hancock declines to identify them) refusing “approval for their performances”. “So I had to replace some artists,” he says.
While The Imagine Project does head into preachy, We Are The World territory, it is redeemed by outstanding arrangements and performances, not the least being Hancock’s distinctive, spacious touch and, when appropriate, arresting speed on piano.
Whether the world needs another version of John Lennon’s Imagine (this time featuring Pink at full diva-tilt, a bluesy Seal and India.Arie running the groove) may be debatable, but Hancock, with the quiet confidence only available to people with indisputable, outrageous talent, isn’t worried.
“I’m not a pop artist so I didn’t know Imagine was untouchable,” he says. “Jazz players don’t have untouchable songs.”
To the observer, Chicago-born Herbert Jeffrey Hancock seems very comfortable in his own skin. There’s no overt pretence or posturing; no need to flaunt fame; to overstate or understate, for that matter. Labels are just labels, music is music. He is the keeper of the cool.
Married to Gigi since 1968, Hancock’s apparent genuineness adds weight to his latest undertaking. At the very least, it’s quite clear The Imagine Project was something the long-practising Nichiren Buddhist believes he had to do. “Now I think about purpose. I didn’t used to think about purpose,” he says.
He’s a dapper man who generally looks 20 years younger than he is, but there’s a weariness in his eyes and voice after hours banging the drum about a project he describes as his most difficult.
“I guess . . . it’s a combination of my age and the practice of Buddhism. What I’ve learned is, in order for something to have value it has to in some way work towards serving humanity, otherwise it’s self-serving and shallow and disruptive.”
Hancock came to Buddhism nearly 38 years ago, via his old bass player, Buster Williams. Significantly, it was Williams’s brilliant playing, inspiring an amazing show “with a kind of spiritual overtone” that had patrons “in tears”, that spoke loudest to Hancock about his colleague’s faith.
“I pulled him into the musicians’ room. I’d known him for many years and never heard him play like that and I said, ‘I heard you got a new philosophy or something, if it made you play bass like that I want to know what it is’.”
Hancock says he only listened to Williams’s explanation of Buddhism because its introduction came “through the music”.
Indeed, Hancock – the great listener – is adamant most of his best life lessons arrived through “feeling” something musically or via “osmosis”, as in the case of his mentor, Davis.
Davis “never told us what to play” but in the process of playing with him “you learned courage, you exercised courage . . . learned to push a boundary”.
“He almost never talked about music,” Hancock says. “But he’d tell us stories about himself and other musicians, funny things that happened.
“Hearing those stories, you learned the lifeblood of jazz. If he talked about music per se I don’t think you [would] learn as much about the feeling and essence of it.”
Davis died in 1991, but Hancock says he doesn’t feel as though Davis has gone anywhere – “he seems present rather than absent”.
“He was a big influence on me and some of the decisions I make sort of get filtered through the Miles Davis filter: what would Miles say and what would Miles do.”
Hancock says he feels an obligation to somehow impart some of his wisdom on young musicians and he’s got a particular soft spot and mountain of admiration for his current bassist, 23-year-old Australian Tal Wilkenfeld.
Bondi-raised Wilkenfeld dropped out of school and moved to the US as a 16-year-old and, remarkably, has established herself as one of the leading up-and-coming bassists on the planet, playing with luminaries including Susan Tedeschi, the Allman Brothers Band, jazz great Chick Corea and the celebrated rocker Jeff Beck.
She first came to Hancock’s attention courtesy of leading drummer Vinnie Colaiuta.
“She kept appearing backstage at different venues in different places and [Vinnie] says ‘she’s a bass player’,” Hancock recalls.
“Oh that’s nice,” Hancock told him dismissively at first. “I mean, she looks like a 12-year-old.”
Nevertheless, she got a chance to play with Hancock and Corinne Bailey Rae in a session for the TV series Live From Abbey Road and later received an invitation from Hancock to play a few tracks on The Imagine Project album. Now she’s in his touring band for three months.
“She’s so talented, it’s just amazing,” he says.
Hancock clearly has affection for the prodigy but the old jazz hand, who started playing with Davis at a similar age, is doing his best to ensure Wilkenfeld “doesn’t get too spoiled . . . compared to how you’re normally treated as a jazz musician, she’s been pampered and that’s not normal,” he says.
Hancock hopes through “osmosis . . . somehow she’ll find some valuable things” in playing with someone who’s had “70 years on the planet” and in turn he’s drawing on her vigour and different generational outlook, “because that helps me get in touch with my own youthful spirit”.
For her part, Wilkenfeld is tapping into the mysteries of the wordless exchange of jazz sorcery between bandleader and band member.
“I’m just so thankful to play with a genius,” she says. “When you interact . . . that’s how you learn.”
The Imagine Project is out now.
Click here to read the original source article via The Sydney Morning Herald
WSJ: ‘Herbie Hancock’s Carnegie Hall Birthday Party’
When Herbie Hancock took the stage for his show at New York’s Carnegie Hall last night, audience members whispered in about about his ageless looks. Then the 70-year-old jazzman took to the piano, and the energy bursting from the keys as he led two different bands through two sets showed Hancock doesn’t just look like a younger man, he plays with the energy of one too.
The first set of Hancock’s “Seven Decades: The Birthday Celebration” was a foray into the musician’s early years as a member of the late 1960′s Miles Davis quintet. Bassist Ron Carter and Wayne Shorter on soprano saxophone led a stellar lineup of jazz players, including: drummer Jack DeJohnette, bassist Dave Holland (who alternated playing duties with Carter), Joe Lovano on tenor saxophone, Lionel Loueke on guitar, and Wallace Roney and Terrence Blanchard on trumpet.
Blanchard helped kick things off with his own arrangement of the Wayne Shorter composition, “Footprints.” Hancock’s solo crackled with the enthusiasm of a musician playing the song for the first time, when in fact he’s probably played it many times over the years. On the Ron Carter composition, “81,” Roney wowed the audience with a dynamic solo filled with single-note blasts and dizzying runs. As the set closed out with a re-working of the standard, “My Funny Valentine” and the classic Hancock compositions, “Maiden Voyage” and “Cantaloupe Island,” the band members traded off bars or playfully fed off each other in moments of group improvisation.
In the second set, Hancock drifted away from his jazz roots and re-emerged from intermission to perform music from his brand-new album, “The Imagine Project.” Loueke remained, as Tal Wikenfeld handled electric bass, with Greg Phillinganes on vocals and keyboards, and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums. Special guest India.Aire came out to perform a reworking of John Lennon’s “Imagine” alongside Herbie’s group vocalist, Kristina Train, who also performed her own stirring rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Court and Spark.” More star power was added on the feel good jam “Space Captain,” performed by two married musicians, rocker Derek Trucks (guitar) and blues artist Susan Tedschi (vocals).
As an encore, Hancock went with his 1973 smash hit, “Chameleon,” which fit in between his jazz beginnings and the modern-day pop sound he’s cultivated over the years. With the band in full swing behind him, Hancock rocked out with his Keytar, and age, labels and time all seemed to slip away.
Speakeasy will be posting a live performance with Hancock this weekend
Click here to view the original source article via the Wall Street Journal
Photos: Herbie Hancock at Carnegie Hall
In a week that saw the release of Herbie Hancock’s latest album, “The Imagine Project,” the jazz legend took to the stage at Carnegie Hall in New York to perform the East Coast half of his 70th birthday celebration.
The West Coast party, framed at the other end of his current tour itinerary, will take place in September at the Hollywood Bowl.
On Thursday night (6/24) with Bill Cosby in the role of Master of Ceremonies, Hancock was joined by an all-star cast that included Terence Blanchard, Ron Carter, Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, Wayne Shorter, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi. SoundSpike’s Chris Owyoung was there and some of the highlights of the night are shown below.
Herbie To Perform On The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon
Check out Herbie’s upcoming talk show schedule with various special guests from “The Imagine Project.” Please tune in to see amazing tracks from the new album performed live!
June 22 – Jimmy Fallon NBC 12:35pm / 11:35PM CT. Herbie sitting in with The Roots
June 23 – The Today Show NBC 7am ET / 10am PT. Herbie with India.Arie
Video: Herbie Hancock Interview on PBS’ Tavis Smiley
NPR First Listen: ‘The Imagine Project’
Herbie Hancock has always had his feet planted firmly in both the jazz and pop worlds. In 1962, his tune “Watermelon Man” was a mash-up of gospel, R&B and so-called “soul jazz” that became a Top 10 hit in the hands of Mongo Santamaria when he recorded it as a Cuban cha-cha-cha a year later. In 1973, Head Hunters landed on the pop charts, fueled by a song that has become a funk standard, “Chameleon.” In 1983, Hancock became a pop-music video star with the release of “Rockit” from Future Shock. And in 2007, his tribute to Joni Mitchell, River: The Joni Letters, won the 2008 Album of the Year Grammy.
Keep in mind that he’s done all this while also becoming one of the most respected jazz pianists and composers of his generation.
Like River, Hancock’s new album, The Imagine Project, is a collection of collaborations with pop-music vocalists, though there are also a few “world” musicians and jazz artists involved. There is an unmistakable pop production sheen that may leave some diehard jazz fans groaning.
But Hancock has always rolled with his artistic credibility intact, and this project is no exception. It’s musically challenging as much as it is engaging and accessible. Pop music could stand to exude this kind of sophistication a little more often.
The Imagine Project will stream here in its entirety until its release on June 22. Please leave your thoughts on the album in the comments section below.
‘The Imagine Project’ Album Stream on NPR
NPR.com will be streaming Herbie’s upcoming album “The Imagine Project” in its entirety starting June 14 – 22. Be sure to tune in and treat your ears to a masterpiece!
The GRAMMY Museum Presents An Evening with Herbie Hancock
Herbie will be interviewed at the Grammy Museum downtown by Executive Director Robert Santelli on June 7, 2010.
Hear Hancock in conversation about his remarkable career, genre-transcending catalogue, and newest music / documentary, The Imagine Project. After the interview, Hancock will take questions from the audience. Doors open at 7:30pm. Tickets are $25 per person and can be purchased in person at the box office, or online.
Thelonious Monk Institute Tour of China
Herbie Hancock and Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz on U.S. Department of State Cultural and Education Tour of China, May 7 – 16, 2010.
Washington, D.C.– The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz will continue its longstanding partnership with the U.S. Department of State by presenting a 10-day jazz education and performance tour of China. This tour will mark the Institute’s first visit to China and will introduce tens of thousands of young people and adults in China to jazz, America’s greatest musical contribution to the world.